Investing For Stoner Newbs

I'm sick of watching my bank accounts fluctuate. I'd like to get into some short and long term investments but I don't know where to start. I don't think I'm interested in penny stocks, unless I can use them and apply the technique to other stocks later on?

I make good money but I want it to keep grow. Ever since my son was born I've been worrying about leaving him enough cash/equity to help him out whatever stage of life he's in.

I just need a push in the right direction...

penny stocks are worth pennies... their major changes are fractions of dollars so they are not a particularly stable investment method (unless your plan is to substantially lose money to inflation over the long haul... some day and minute traders fare much better, however they tend to be willing to play the market by the minute (this would basically BE your job, right?)... most *but* certainly not all blue chips are still trading well (and some folks seem to think that just about all of them are substantially undervalued right now (in real terms as opposed to potential future growth)... cds tend to move fairly well over the long haul... some (but not all) municipal bonds are sorta ok (but not really in terms of stability)... AND THEN THERE'S THE REAL BAD NEWS: the fed has done as much as it feels it can to do anything else to boost the economy... perhaps someone can open a factory that makes really expensive parts for something exotic and totally modernly necessary??? that could help... good luck investing in anything right now... i myself am going to buy some land and start farming and stock up on tools now before they get massively expensive or impossible to source... it's looking bumpy for the immediate future right now... but land: at least you could grow some food for yourself...

^^
Bingo penny stocks are a horrible way for a person like you to piss away money. At least piss it away on something fun like drugs or "escorts." Day trading is highly speculative form of trading that requires a good bit of starting capital and nerves of steel.

Stock trading is a mixture of research and instinct. You need to know how to spot a company that is going to fit your investing style, research the company so you don't get hit by any surprises, and finally find a good time to buy in.

Basically be ready to spend a good bit of time watching the market and reading up on the financials of the companies that you are interested in. You'll also want to listen to the conference calls of companies you have invested in and want to invest in.

One thing to keep in mind is that a company with a nice dividend gets some protection from being short sold because the dividend gets taken from anyone who is short in the stock when it's due. It's also nice to get a steady flow of money from a few stocks in your portfolio.

Naysayers be damned there is always some money to be made in the market. Especially once you understand how trading options can work.

Investorpedia has some great information (I know it's a lot of reading but that's what stock picking is so get used to it.)http://www.investopedia.com/features/investing-101.aspx
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/basics/09/compare-investing-gambling.asp
http://www.investopedia.com/university/fiveminute/fiveminute1.asp
http://www.investopedia.com/university/fiveminute/fiveminute2.asp
http://www.investopedia.com/university/stocks/
http://www.investopedia.com/university/stockpicking/default.asp
http://www.investopedia.com/university/options/

nl3004.kind said:

i myself am going to buy some land and start farming and stock up on tools now before they get massively expensive or impossible to source... it's looking bumpy for the immediate future right now... but land: at least you could grow some food for yourself...

Click to expand...

Good Luck with starting farming, it is not like it used to be, people just went out an started farming. First, the cost of land is running at a all time high, northern plains is running anywhere from 2000 to 3500 per acre, central plains 4000 to 6000 per acre. Then the cost of equipment, you can easily spend a million dollars on equipment to get started. When larger eqiupment, like say a combine can run 250,000. In order to start farming nowdays you need a big checkbook or know somebody that helps you get started.

Investing nowdays with an unstable market is a bit tricky. Best bets would be to check out some type of broad portfolio with investment leaders. I use Thrivent and run a moderate to agressive fund allocation. They handle finding different investments, while market timing is up to myself. It really depends on your age how agressive you should be.
I have had this fund for 23 years and have averaged 8 1/2 percent on my money. Was doing alot better but last year really sucked.

Right now another really agressive place to invest is in commodities, like corn, soybeans, wheat. It can be fast money and it can really hurt to.

For you child, look into a SEP IRA, good place to stash away some money for schooling and it will be tax free when used.

Hope it helps, this is just the tip of the iceberg in investing, any questions fire away and I can try to help.

plantvision said:

Good Luck with starting farming, it is not like it used to be, people just went out an started farming. First, the cost of land is running at a all time high, northern plains is running anywhere from 2000 to 3500 per acre, central plains 4000 to 6000 per acre. Then the cost of equipment, you can easily spend a million dollars on equipment to get started. When larger eqiupment, like say a combine can run 250,000. In order to start farming nowdays you need a big checkbook or know somebody that helps you get started.

Investing nowdays with an unstable market is a bit tricky. Best bets would be to check out some type of broad portfolio with investment leaders. I use Thrivent and run a moderate to agressive fund allocation. They handle finding different investments, while market timing is up to myself. It really depends on your age how agressive you should be.
I have had this fund for 23 years and have averaged 8 1/2 percent on my money. Was doing alot better but last year really sucked.

Right now another really agressive place to invest is in commodities, like corn, soybeans, wheat. It can be fast money and it can really hurt to.

For you child, look into a SEP IRA, good place to stash away some money for schooling and it will be tax free when used.

Hope it helps, this is just the tip of the iceberg in investing, any questions fire away and I can try to help.

Click to expand...

not talking about 100+ acre farming: more like 40 acre subsistence farming (to take care of the family and maybe a little bit on the side from farm stand or whatever)... if you spend a million dollars on gear, you are doing it wrong!!! you can outfit a small family farm comfortably for 50k tops, especially if you don't insist on new stuff (or combines)... there are a variety of different kinds of farming, the large model will not outlast the environment...

Penny stocks are cheep for a reason. Most all of the penny stocks are junk or outright frauds.

Maps of the S&P 500 and other stuff.
http://finviz.com/map.ashx

How would you like 3 to 6 percent a month?
It can be done but would take several years to learn how to do it well.
You would have to learn how to trade options. This is not for everyone, if you want to take your returns beyond what a mutual fund offers, not that there is anything wrong with mutual funds, you can try options spread trading.

Think or Swim
https://www.thinkorswim.com/tos/client/index.jsp

There are many other good brokerages out there but I think this one is the best for retail options traders. Get a paper trading account, no real money involved so you can make some mistakes with no loss. A paper trade account is free too. It will seem overwhelming at first but you will learn over time and with practice.

The short answer to what is options trading all about, it is all about risk management.
Options were initially offered as an insurance product.

This guy explains some options strategies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA8PbceZXnM

Another thing to listen to, its a place to start.
https://www.tastytrade.com/#/

Floored a movie about trading
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW37sEkXMMc

The Ascent Of Money
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ascentofmoney/

Check out UpDown.com, it's an investment "game" based in reality (the quotes are 15 min. behind real time). They give you $1,000,000 (virtual/play $) to invest in anything you want (as long as it's a stock). They give you all kinds of charts and graphs so you can do research on what you want to invest in and they even have a way for you to figure out stock symbols, like (F) is Ford, (AAPL) is Apple, (GOOG) is Google, (BIDU) is Baidu [the Chinese Google], etc. It's a great way to learn, hands on, without risking a dime in reality. Then, if you find you're pretty good at picking winners, go on and invest in the market for real... if you suck at picking winners, get a good investment advisor (there really are some good honest ones out there, you just have to look) and have them help you invest wisely according to what your goals are. Either way, UpDown.com will give you a better understanding of how investing really works... AND, if you do well in your portfolio and beat the S&P 500 percentage for the month you can win REAL MONEY. I've only made a few bucks, but there are a few people on the site who have made hundreds and a couple who have made over a thousand, playing a stock market "game". Try it, you may find out you're pretty good... or you may find out you're not, either way you find out without any chance of losing any real money and you have the chance to make some real money.

If you are looking for a good paying divi, take a look at REITS (real estate investment trusts) Some of the more popular ones are NLY, AGNC, and CIM. Which pay you a divi of 10-20% Theres hundreds more out there you just gotta look.
REITS are more 'speculative' divi plays seeing as their yeild is almost too unreal.
There are also many other ways to play the market, you just have to research.
I could go on for hours and hours typing what to look for, but i think you have enough brains to do research for yourself.
One suggestion that i can make is learn how to read charts and financials.
Finviz.com is a great site for charts and financials after you learn how to read them.
Another thing is, DO NOT listen to any articles on seekingalpha or montlyfool, altho they are entertaining and SOME have good information. There is also alot of BS spewed.
One last piece of advice. The bread and butter of ANYONES trading is 'buy on support, sell on resitance'
Heres a chart that represents that. Its of NFLX off of FINVIZ.com BLUE LINE is support PURPLE LINE is resistance. http://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=nflx&ty=c&ta=1&p=d
If you have any questions leme know

GDP is down much more than expected, bad (past) news for the economy. Is the "R" (recession) word going to be official? Right now the market is tanking.
This is good news for an investor.
Here is a sure fire way to make money in your 401K.
Up your contributions, in fact if the market is really tanking hard I would strongly suggest upping your contributions to 100% of your pay. That means your take home pay is $0.00 dollars, all of it goes to the 401K. You do not have to worry if your timing is not exactly right, this works I guarantee it.

You could pull out of the market but be ready to jump right back in, don't stay out too long. You have to be on it on a daily bases for this to work or you may loose money.

invest in index funds unless you want to spend all evening trying to be a semi decent investor. Warren Buffet put it best, by having a cross section of american stocks though index funds you end up betting on the american economy as a hole which has no place to go but up at this point.

Get your stock wish list out, there are going to be some bargains. The stock market is discounting in the next recession.

Companies will survive by raising prices and laying off workers. This helps offsets the losses they will take due to lower sales.

The VIX hit 32 dollars today.

get a permanent life insurance policy with a mutual company. Good companies have provided policy holders with about 6% a year for a long time now. Not to mention the tax benefits

Is it blind squirrel time for picking stocks? Or the dartboard method, a blindfold and a dartboard of the S&P 500. What ever the dart lands on buy it. The VIX is at $48 dollars now.